Ecopia Selected to Lead Statewide Mapping Initiative Supporting Safer and Smarter Cities Across Illinois

November 3, 2022 -- Toronto -- Today, Ecopia AI (Ecopia) announces a partnership with the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) and the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP) to deliver a comprehensive HD map of 26 land cover and transportation features to metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) throughout the state of Illinois - covering the third largest metropolitan area in the United States and an area of over 12,000 square miles. This detailed map and its features will ensure that the MPOs have accurate, up-to-date information at scale for decision-making related to transportation, housing, economic development, open space, the environment, and other quality of life issues.

CMAP faces challenges that are common for large metropolitan regions. With 286 member municipalities, the standardization and maintenance of regional data can be a complex undertaking. This is not only an issue for large metropolitan regions; IDOT’s decision to join the partnership extends access to Ecopia’s data for every MPO across the state, supporting stakeholders throughout Illinois to improve transportation projects and programs unique to their region. Ecopia is looking forward to supporting both IDOT and CMAP in their mission to provide easily scalable resources and build local capacity for all communities.

“The partnership with Ecopia empowers us with an unprecedented level of detail and accuracy about northeastern Illinois,” said CMAP Executive Director Erin Aleman. “These comprehensive and up-to-date views of transportation and land cover will help CMAP and local decision makers drive innovation and develop projects that serve our region’s 8.5 million residents.”‍

By leveraging its advanced artificial intelligence-based mapping systems, Ecopia can ingest high-resolution geospatial imagery data and output transportation-related map features with high-precision at a large-scale. Specifically, Ecopia is extracting 26 distinct features, including land cover types (roads, sidewalks, crosswalks, etc.) and advanced transportation features (turning lanes, medians, stoplines, etc.) to provide a complete view of the region’s land use and pedestrian mobility network. Digitizing these features manually would have taken the MPOs thousands of hours, but Ecopia is able to extract them all from up-to-date imagery with human-like precision in record time.

These 26 features are being used by state and local agencies to support a number of applications including:

• State and regional long range transportation plans
• Multi-modal analysis
• Active transportation planning
• Vision Zero initiatives
• Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliance
• Stormwater and flood management
• Performance-based capital program monitoring
• Intersection and corridor analysis
• Tree canopy management

“Ecopia is thrilled to deliver IDOT and CMAP with the high quality map data needed for regional and community planning,” added Bill Singleton, VP of Sales at Ecopia. “We are committed to using AI for good, and are proud to be working with the MPOs of Illinois to improve the quality of life for millions of people.”‍

“IDOT is excited to provide resources to metropolitan planning organizations with an innovative data tool for critical statewide infrastructure,” said Holly Bieneman, Director of IDOT’s Office of Planning & Programming.‍

This work will be supported by Woolpert on NOAA's Coastal Geospatial Services Contract (CGSC).‍

****

About the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP)
The Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP) is northeastern Illinois’ comprehensive planning organization. The agency and its partners developed ON TO 2050, a long-range plan to help the seven counties and 284 communities of our region address transportation, equity, environmental and other quality-of-life issues. Visit CMAP’s website for more information: cmap.illinois.gov

About the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT)
Every day, IDOT strives to design and maintain a world class transportation system that enhances safety and the quality of life of its citizens and visitors by reducing congestion and increasing mobility. This system also facilitates and improves the inter-connectivity of all transportation modes for the efficient movement of people and goods to support the state’s national and global competitiveness.

The challenges we face at times may seem insurmountable, but these challenges help us realize the potential that exists to transform communities and regions across the state through strategic infrastructure investments in all modes. IDOT's talented, professional, and diverse group of public servants understand the importance of innovation, diligence, hard work, and collaboration with all transportation stakeholders at all levels for the common good. To learn more, visit idot.illinois.gov

About Ecopia AI
Ecopia is on a mission to create a digital twin of the Earth. We leverage artificial intelligence to convert high-resolution imagery into high-definition (HD) Vector Maps. These maps form a digital representation of reality and are embedded into decision-making applications, offering unique insight at scale. Ecopia’s HD Vector Maps are leveraged for hundreds of commercial and government applications across over 100 countries around the world.